Private Lands to Become Public: Brett French Radio Show PreviewBy angelamontana

Thanks to a generous Paradise Valley landowner, the public will soon gain access to a portion of Mill Creek in the Paradise Valley, as well as a large chunk of land on the side of nearby Arrow Peak. Ed Bazinet has agreed to donate about 500 acres to the Forest Service.

Bazinet worked out the deal after the Yellowstone District ranger found out that part of Bazinet’s prized hay barn from the 1940s sat on a thin stripe of forest land. In return for making the donation, the forest will sell Bazinet the 8/10ths of an acre on which the hay barn sits. A variety of conservation groups have hailed the proposed deal, which has not yet been finalized. Mill Creek drains from the Absaroka Mountains and provides a home for Yellowstone cutthroat trout, a species of concern in Montana.